Lanka hardens stand over LTTE demand
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
New Delhi, June 24, IRNA
Sri Lanka-LTTE-Demand
Toughening its stance against Tamil Tigers, Sri Lanka Saturday asked the Nordic truce monitors not to accede to the rebels' "unreasonable" demand to remove members in the peace mission who come from the European Union, which had outlawed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as a terror organization.
"The government of Sri Lanka urges the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission to continue to carry out its mandate despite the unreasonable stance of the LTTE," the Peace Secretariat, which coordinates the talks with the Norwegian negotiators, said in a statement, a PTI report said here.
"The time period of one month insisted on by the LTTE for effecting changes in the composition of the Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission (SLMM) is tantamount to the imposition of a hostile deadline by the LTTE," it said.
Any change in the SLMM should involve all parties to the ceasefire deal signed in February 2002, it said.
"It is not a matter for unilateral decision-making by the LTTE or to be determined between Norway and the LTTE."
"These are matters that require negotiations by all parties concerned and cannot be addressed unilaterally to respond to the unreasonable sensitivities and the intransigent attitude of the LTTE," it said.
The LTTE had told Norway that they did not want monitors from Denmark, Finland and Sweden, which are members of the EU that proscribed it as a terror organization last month.
The government on Thursday agreed to a six-month transitional period for replacement of monitors as suggested by Norway, but said the one month demanded by the Tamil Tiger rebels was unreasonable.
However, the government has also officially given its approval to Norway's suggestion to amend the ceasefire agreement to ensure that monitors are not restricted to Nordic nations as originally agreed.
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